Seeking The Palace Under the Lake
By Mubasher Hasan
Modern Bengali literature has been going strong these past two centuries. With lots of remarkable authors, poets and playwrights, it flourishes in almost all branches of storytelling. But when it comes to modern fantasy, things are surprisingly dry. Despite multiple millennia worth of folklore and legends, there isn’t much evidence of fantasy literature in Bengal aside from a handful of children’s stories and a few recent entries. COLORS magazine talks to Shariful Hasan, author of the widely popular ‘Sambhala’ and ‘Ondho Jadukor’ series about the potential of fantasy in the Bengali cultural context.
Most bookworms grew up imagining themselves on horseback, riding their way to the quest of saving their kingdom from evil sorcerers, or the princess from the dragon’s keep. Simultaneously, they also imagined being gifted a magic throne from the gods; or being a prince whose life was trapped in the heart of an enchanted fish in an enchanted pond. As grown-ups, we still got to read about wizarding schools, modern-day greek demigods, and whole worlds inside wardrobes. But somehow the undead prince Dalim Kumar or the princess of slumber, Keshavati got trapped in the folds of childhood.
Fantasy is a widely popular genre in modern and medieval literature. Titles like Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, A Song of Ice and Fire caused massive cultural rage throughout the world. These books draw inspiration from different sources of ancient and medieval western folklore. Bangladesh and the greater Bengal, has a treasure chest full of fantastical elements, yet we don’t see much of these make their way to modern literature. Sure there are some retellings of these epics and legends in a few reworks, but the proper use of such a rich resource has only recently started to be seen in the works of a few authors. Shariful Hasan, Author and self-proclaimed fantasy nerd has been observing the potential of fantasy in a Bengali context.
Hasan grew up reading translated best sellers from Sheba Publication. When he started reading mainstream western fantasies in the early 00s he fell in love with the storytelling format. He wanted to explore the possibilities of bringing the magical tales of heroes, wizards and fictional secondary worlds into Bangladeshi writing. “I thought there’s a good opportunity for a writer to explore this area.”
Fantasies don’t strictly need to be true to Bengali cultural roots. Stories based on foreign folklore are popular all over the world. Hasan believes Bengali retellings of popular fantasy novels can be fun as long as the linguistics are on point. He explains, “Say you want to write about an ancient immortal race who lives deep within the forest in complete harmony with nature, you cannot name them ‘Elves’. A Bengali-sounding name would be much more appropriate and relatable.”
Hasan is hopeful folk and fantasy fiction can achieve mainstream popularity if enough time is given to nurturing it. He believes the typical rush of publishing a book to reach the readers as soon as possible won’t be available. Since it is still very new in Bangladesh, we have to put it on trial and experiment as much as possible.
While discussing his books, the plots and timelines come up naturally. Both of Hasan’s fantasy series are written in a contemporary setting. He believes we don’t have enough historical data to write medieval or epic fantasies on a grand scale. Most information on medieval history is under shades and it’s hard to draw from ancient mythology due to secular restrictions. According to him, there’s a good side to this as he can rely a lot on his imagination.
Though he likes to explore fantasy in a Bangladeshi context, Hasan is not too interested in creating a second world with a completely Bengali origin. He believes there is no such thing, because of diverse indigenous communities and multiple foreign occupations. Continuing on this discussion he hinted at a potential project, where a Bengali prince, who was banished from his kingdom travels to Sri Lanka and aims to conquer the lands from the locals.” I got this idea while researching medieval incidents of expansion. And found this piece about a prince named Bijay Sen. I believe this is a story waiting to be told.”
Hasan is hopeful that the lack of tangible data will be eradicated as the popularity of fantasy fiction is getting bigger and bigger in Bangladesh. He believes we have the anthropological marvels as reminders such as Behula’s wedding chambers.
Shariful Hasan is a critically acclaimed author whose fantasy novel series, Sambhala and Ondho Jadukor became quite popular among fans and readers. His slice of life drama Chhaya Shomoy also received praises. He has another book coming up titled Batashey Brishtir Ghran. When asked to comment on this book, he said, “This was a project I was most involved with. It didn’t take much time to write it but I was more invested in it than anything else. Here, I tried to reflect on an entire lifetime within three chapters. An approach I never attempted before, so in a way, it was also an experimental project for me.”
Fantasy literature is not only a fun escape from reality but is also a colorful representation of culture and history. Bengali fantasy has the potential to not only be closer and more relatable to local readers but it also has the ability to spark global curiosity towards Bengali culture. Seemingly Bengali fantasy literature has a fine start, with luck and enthusiasm it will hopefully grow even bigger and more universal.
